Profound vs Retresco

Profound raises $180M in Series D to build your AI Marketer

Profound has raised $180M to build the AI platform for marketing. CEO James Cadwallader writes why AI is creating more work for marketers, and how AI Marketer brings company context and agents together to help teams do it.

Estée Lauder Adopts GEO for AI Visibility

Estée Lauder has forged a global partnership with AI marketing platform Profound to enhance its brands' visibility in generative AI systems like ChatGPT and Gemini. The beauty conglomerate will leverage Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) to analyze and improve how its products appear in AI-driven search and answer platforms. This initiative, integrated into its One Operating Ecosystem, marks a significant step in treating AI visibility as a core marketing discipline, with content optimization across product pages, blogs, and YouTube channels. The partnership highlights the growing importance of AI assistants as new discovery channels for consumers.

• Estée Lauder partners with Profound, an AI marketing platform, for global GEO strategy.
• Focus is on analyzing and optimizing brand presence in AI systems like ChatGPT and Gemini.
• The initiative will be deployed across Estée Lauder's entire brand portfolio worldwide.

AI search marketing startup Profound raises $180M Series D at $1.8B valuation

Profound, a marketing software startup that helps brands appear in AI search results, announced a $180 million Series D funding round at a $1.8 billion valuation, just seven months after its $96 million Series C. The round was co-led by Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins, with participation from existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners, Khosla Ventures, and South Park Commons. The company, which launched two years ago as an analytics platform, now focuses on generative engine optimization (GEO) and answer engine optimization (AEO), helping businesses understand how AI systems influence consumer brand discovery. Profound reports revenue growth of 3x in the past six months and serves over 1,000 enterprise customers, including Comcast, The Estée Lauder Companies, and Walmart. The funding will likely support expansion and product development in the rapidly growing AI search optimization space.

• Profound raised $180 million in Series D funding.
• The valuation is $1.8 billion, making Profound a unicorn.
• Sequoia and Kleiner Perkins co-led the round.

German Publishers' AI Strategies Rise, Economic Value Disappoints

A new market study by the German Federal Association of Digital Publishers and Newspaper Publishers (BDZV) and Berlin-based tech company Retresco reveals that 79% of German media houses now have an AI strategy, a 19 percentage point increase from the previous year. However, the economic benefits of AI adoption remain unclear. Only 20% of companies measure the return on investment (ROI) based on reliable figures, despite 61% having defined KPIs. While 80% of respondents see efficiency gains in their newsrooms, the impact on user retention, new formats, and revenue models is lagging. The report cautions that AI can risk journalistic credibility, and points to the growing importance of agentic AI, now seen as strategically relevant by 54% of media houses.

• 79% of German media houses have an AI strategy, up 19 percentage points from last year.
• Only 20% of media houses measure ROI of AI projects based on reliable figures.
• 49% of respondents cite infrastructure and integration as key obstacles to AI implementation.

German Stevie Award: Retresco für interaktive KI-Unternehmensanwendung ausgezeichnet

Retresco wurde mit dem German Stevie Award für eine interaktive KI-Unternehmensanwendung ausgezeichnet.